ABSTRACT
This chapter presents three case studies that illustrate the importance of relics, and more specifically, the movement of relics, in the creation of a Christian sacred topography for Constantinople in Late Antiquity. It argues that the movement of relics strengthened liminal areas around and outside the city walls, which were particularly prone to enemy attacks, and that it increased spatial cohesion between city centre and hinterland with Hagia Sophia as a sacred hub for further dispensation of relics. In the context of performance analysis, the translation of relics is read as a ritual of unveiling in which usually hidden objects were temporarily released, presented to the crowds, and thus activated and authenticated as tokens of holiness. By carefully contextualising each translation, the chapter highlights the intersection between the cult of relics, the formation of civic identity, and the negotiation of political and religious hierarchies in the Roman Empire’s new capital.
